Substance versus Fluff!

It takes a serious amount of effort to build a company that truly executes well. If you are serious about your company being “good at what it does”, then that effort never ends … you are always looking to get better and better.

It is not quite so difficult to create a company that tells a good story! A slick presentation, a good presenter and the clients can easily believe that they are looking at the “real deal”.

I would like to believe that, given time, the “fluff” companies fall on their face and their reputation becomes known. However in my experience that happens only to a small extent and those companies always seem to find someone else to “snow”.

I have tried to understand it … and I have come up with the following explanations as to how those companies survive.

1. First and foremost they are very convincing … so people believe their story.2. People have short memories.3. Quality competitors don’t want to bad mouth other companies so they don’t highlight the shortcomings of their competition. (The slick people have no such qualms).4. Price is a huge incentive, so they price very low.5. Once they get in they always have an excuse for why execution isn’t so good.6. It takes a long time for all the rumblings to come together.7. They tend to do OK in just enough areas to keep the “wolves at bay”.8. Buyers don’t want to look like they made a mistake in their choice, so they move very slowly to remove the poor performer.